


Warm Enough

by AxisMage



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Child Jason Todd, Family Dynamics, Family Fluff, Gen, Grandfather Alfred, Jason Todd is Robin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-11
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-08-22 03:08:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16589687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AxisMage/pseuds/AxisMage
Summary: Alfred finds the boy sleeping on the floor when he steps into the room. When asked why he isn´t on the bed, Jason´s reply is something that breaks Alfred´s heart and something he can also sympathize with





	Warm Enough

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LorelainMichaelis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LorelainMichaelis/gifts).



> So this is nothing but a lil fluffy scene between Alfred and baby Jason because... Because it´s my bestie´s birthday! And jut like baby Jay, she deserves all the love and good stuff in the world :3. Happy birthday darling, I know this isn´t much, but I still hope you enjoy it <3

He finds the boy curled up on the floor with the thinnest blanket and the smallest pillow. The child is clearly asleep, but instead of looking peaceful while doing it, there is a frown on his small face, as well as a small downturn to his lips. He doesn’t look comfortable, and at first Alfred doesn’t understand how he fell asleep on the floor in the first place. Could he have fallen off the bed? It doesn’t look that way. 

Alfred lets out a soft sigh, turns on the lights. He pulls up the pants of his legs and then kneels down. He reaches out to shake the boy´s shoulder once, making sure to be as gentle as possible. It appears he wasn’t as gentle as he thought, given the boy´s eyes snap open and he sits up before Alfred can even pull his hand back. He stares at the elderly man with wide and alert eyes, and all Alfred does is straighten up and hold out his gloved hand. 

“Is the bed not to your liking, Master Jason?” he asks. The boy blinks, then frowns. Alfred keeps his hand stretched. After a few seconds, Jason takes it and gets to his feet, hugging the blanket to himself as soon as he can. 

“The bed is fine,” he says, and he sounds somewhat shy. Then again, since Bruce had brought him to the manor two weeks ago, he hasn’t sounded anything but that. 

“Did you fall off?” Alfred inquires. 

Jason shakes his head. 

“If neither of those is the case, I must know, young man, why were you sleeping on the floor?”

The boy´s frown deepens. He picks up his pillow, hugs it as tight as he had hugged the blanket. His gaze darts around the room, stop on the bed, skid across Alfred´s face a couple of times before he mumbles something out.

Alfred clasps his hands behind his back, bends at the waist. “Pardon me?”

Jason speaks louder this time, but it is still unintelligible. 

“Master Jason, while I know I am still perfectly capable of functioning on my own, I am afraid my hearing might not be in perfect condition. Will you say that again, louder and clearer this time?”

Jason´s eyes settle on his face again, and Alfred sees him grind his jaw. He decides to wait. His answer comes preceded by a sigh. 

“It´s too hot,” Jason says. He sounds uncomfortable, confused, even ashamed. “The bed. It´s… it´s too hot. And big. And soft.”

Alfred tilts his head to one side. “I thought you had said the bed was… ah, ‘fine’.”

“It is,” Jason snaps, and when Alfred raises an eyebrow, Jason seems to shrink in on himself. “I… I mean. The bed is great. For normal people. It… it feels expensive. It´s a good bed.”

“But you do not like it.” It Is a statement more than a question. 

Jason lets out a groan, buries his nose in his pillow. Alfred looks at him and waits in patient silence until the child speaks again. 

“I´m not used to it, okay?” Jason says, and again, he sounds shy. “I´m not used to rich people´s beds, or rich people´s anything, but especially not beds that are too big and hot and that are inside the house of a rich person I don’t know. It´s weird. I can´t sleep on there.”

Alfred´s expressions softens. “Where were you sleeping until Master Bruce brought you to the manor?”

Jason adopts a defensive posture right away. He glares at Alfred, winces when the butler raises one eyebrow again. He bites his lower lip. “You know.”

“I do not, Master Jason. That is why I am asking you. Where were you sleeping?”

“Around.”

“I do not understand.”

Jason grits his teeth together. He stops himself before he can glare at Alfred, but his discomfort is obvious. “Around,” he repeats. “You know. Wherever I could. Wherever there was a dry and warm spot and the street wasn’t too dirty or grimy. Or during the day, when I was sure no one would come into the alleys.”

Alfred´s chest tightens as soon as he hears that. He keeps his gaze on the small and thin child that stands in front of him trying to look valiant. He is small for his age, but from what little Jason has told him or Bruce about his life, Alfred understands why. He also understands why Jason is so thin and why when Alfred serves him a meal, Jason eats it like he´s in a rush and it´s the day the world ends. Alfred understands that, but right now, more than understand, he can sympathize. 

Were he someone else, his face would have crumbled, but Alfred has other ways of expressing himself. He steps forward, lays a hand on Jason´s shoulder and gives a reassuring squeeze. Jason shoots him a curious glance. Alfred offers a small smile. 

“Shall we try and figure out a way for you and the bed to compromise?” he asks. 

Jason looks suspicious. He digs his nose into his pillow, throws the bed a glance. “What do you mean?”

Alfred hums, then steps forward until he´s on the edge of the bed. Leaving out the blanket Jason is now holding, the bed is still covered with three more sheets plus the bedspread. Alfred had prepared the bed as he regularly did for Bruce and Dick when the latter still lived in the house. The manor is always a cold place, after all, especially during the winter season, and he had assumed Jason would be fine with the way the bed was prepared. 

Obviously, he´d been wrong. 

“You are not used to having a lot of bedsheets even if your surroundings are cold,” Alfred says. “Is the blanket you are holding enough?” Jason nods. “Are you completely sure?” Jason nods again. “Very well. Let us put these away, then.” Alfred proceeds to pull the rest of the bedsheets from the foot of the bed until they become loose. He pulls them apart, shakes them one by one and then folds them. He puts them in the laundry basket and looks at the mountain of pillows. 

“These two are enough,” Jason says, apparently catching on. He goes to pick up another small pillow similar to the one he´s holding – both with Wonder Woman pillowcases – and then stands at Alfred´s side. 

The butler gives him an approving nod, then picks up the rest of the stuffy and unnecessary pillows, slips the pillowcases off and puts them in the closet. When he comes back, Jason is sitting on the corner of the bed, still holding his blanket and pillows. 

“The bedspread must stay,” Alfred informs, and Jason nods, then accommodates his two pillows on the huge bed. He starts shaking out his blanket, but Alfred takes it. 

“Lie down,” he instructs. Jason does as he´s told, and Alfred tucks him in, making sure the blanket is spread evenly on the mattress. After that, he pulls the big leather chair closer to the bed and sits down.

Jason shifts around for a few seconds, then ends up lying on his side, facing Alfred and hugging one of the pillows to his chest. He burrows himself in his blanket, lets out a yawn. 

“Are you going to tell me a bedtime story?” he asks, and he sounds both amused and surprised. 

Alfred glances at the bookshelf across the room. It is filled with books he used to read to Bruce and others Bruce had gotten for Dick. They are all children´s book, but Alfred gets the feeling Jason is not the type of child who enjoys short and simple stories like Red Riding Hood. Maybe he got that inkling after seeing Jason in the library leafing and mouthing the lines in A Midsummer Night´s Dream. 

“I will tell you a story,” Alfred says, “but it is not a bedtime story. It is an anecdote.”

“About you?”

“Of course.” 

Jason blinks at him, yawns. “Okay? Go ahead.”

“Do you feel better? Do you think you can stay on the bed now?”

“I think so. Maybe.” Jason pauses, then lifts a hand from under the covers and makes a ‘go-ahead’ motion with it. “Tell me.”

The child´s impatience amuses him, and he allows himself a chuckle, settles in the chair and tips his head backwards, then speaks. 

“Back before I came to Wayne Manor, during the time I worked…” he searches for words, trying to find the simplest way to explain it. 

“A spy?” Jason offers, and when Alfred turns to glance at him, he shrugs. “Bruce told me a couple of things.”

“Hmm. I am surprised, pleasantly so,” Alfred hums, then nods. “Very well, let us say that. When I was a spy, despite what many movies have made it look like, life wasn’t always glamorous and pompous. Not all undercover missions required us to stay with the more privileged people. Sometimes, we would need to join the soldiers out in the battle lines and camps during weeks, even months. Half those times, there would be no beds, and we were lucky if we could settle on top of a blanket for more than a couple of hours. One got used to it, naturally, but the changes when being sent to one of Italy´s privileged families after nearly a year with the military was quite a big shock. Much like this bed, the bed I was given there was as big, as soft, the best money could buy at the time. It was not what I was used to, you see, and even three weeks into my stay with this family, I could not sleep on the bed.”

Alfred stops his little story to look at Jason, finds the child wide-eyed and open-mouthed. Alfred waits, knowing he wants to say something. Jason seems to think about it and mulls over the words in his mind. Eventually, he just says, “So what did you do?” as if he already knows the answer.

“The family had a child. A small and very lovely young girl, a beautiful soul untouched by the war and not corrupted by money,” Alfred says with a nostalgic smile. “One day she came into my room and found me sleeping on the floor. She could not fathom why I was not on the bed. My bed was even bigger than hers, she said, how could I choose to sleep on the floor when the bed was right there?”

Jason gasps. “And did you tell her? The real reason why?”

“I could not do it. She was a very pure and beautiful girl, it seemed unnecessary, as well as unprofessional, to lay any type of burden or complain on the young lady.”

“So what did you say?”

“I merely told her I was not used to warm beds and I could not sleep on it.”

“And what did she say?”

Alfred gives the boy a smile, then gets to his feet. “She scrambled onto the bed and began folding the bedsheets with her small hands. She also threw all the pillows to the ground and asked me to try the bed now that she had made adjustments.”

Jason lets out a giggle. “And did it work? 

Alfred leans over the bed to pat Jason on top of the head. He gives him a wink. “As well as it did for you, young man. Have a good night, Master Jason.”

Jason gives him a wide and genuine smile, the first Alfred has seen him give since he arrived. “Good night, Alfred, good night,” he says, and burrows himself in his blanket and pillow as soon as Alfred turns off the light and closes the bedroom door softly behind him. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading :3
> 
> And again, happy birthday my dear <3


End file.
